It wasn’t home that she found herself in. It was one of the elven cities. Ratface didn’t know which one, but the style was unmistakable.

Elven cities were grown not built. The shops and building twisting out of the earth with a level of patience and attentiveness that only the long-lived elves could attempt. Ratface knew she was dreaming but it was hard to separate what was part of the dream with what was part of the elf city. Was that building really made of trees that twisted into the sky? or had she only dreamt it?

An elf girl passed her by with her mother. She graced Ratface with a glance but moved on before anything could pass between them.

“Don’t be a bother. We’re only tolerated here to hand off our tithe,” said a voice that Ratface recognised.

It was her mother. Her mother was holding her hand. Ratface held her hand tightly, squeezing it as she tried to memorize the feel of it. She looked up to see her mother again.

There was no face, or rather there was one that she saw but any memory of it slipped away from her like smoke. Ratface was watching her mother and yet if someone had asked her to describe the woman, she wouldn’t be able to. Even the voice couldn’t be described. It was her mother’s voice, but she couldn’t identify it. She couldn’t tell you the pitch or her mothers quirks in language. It all was just out of reach. She was there and yet she wasn’t.

She trembled and held back the tears that wanted to come. Her mother bent down and picked her up which made her realise how small she was. It was like she was a child. No, wait. The part of her that was still awake reminded her that it was a dream. This version of her was a child.

She took the opportunity to hold her mother close. This would be the closest she’d get to her ever again.

Her mother chuckled and returned the strength of the hug. She smoothed Ratface’s hair away.

“I didn’t mean to scare you that much. Our hosts are not so poor as to harm a child,” she muttered “in public,” to herself but Ratface suspected she wasn’t meant to hear.

They twisted through the dream city. The streets becoming more and less detailed interchangeably by some arbitrary logic as they carried on.

Ratface saw the elf girl a few more times, always in the detailed streets. The elf stared at a bookstore, or a particularly interesting tree. At one point the girl even looked at some adventurers and Ratface was surprised by how detailed they were; their garish colours clashes with the different browns and greens of the grown city.

They made it to their destination and Ratface looked up in surprise.

This building was made of stone. It was white and harsh and covered in runes. Ratface’s mother paused.

“Wait here,” she told Ratface then walked into the building. The darkness swallowed her up and Ratface reached instinctually for her.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The dream changes and she found herself a little further in the city watching an elf do tricks for a crowd. She knew time had passed but had no idea how much. Her mother was still gone.

The performer waved his hands, and different creatures were conjured around him. It started simple with bird from the local area, a sparrow and a tui twisted around each other.

It became more elaborate as he progressed. The birds dove into a ‘sea’ he’d created and switched into fish. Suddenly she was watching an undersea world.

Countless lights flickered around as fish darted through the area. It focused onto a school of fish that were a riot of colours as they swum through the area. They scattered as he conjured a shark that through their group. The shark snapped its teeth just before the crowd to the excited screams of the watchers.

The ‘sea’ only got deeper, and more and more strange creatures appeared. One fish had a lantern on its face as it lured a poor prey to its doom. The image faded before it could catch them.

“This was Halmir’s city once. At least that’s what they tell you goblins,” said the elf girl.

She’d appeared next to Ratface as the seas switched to wonderful creatures that looked like a floating mushroom with tentacles. They glowed with an otherworldly light.

“Sanctuary is their name for it. The only name you even knew it by as well. I’m not lucky enough to come here again.” The elf girl kept staring at the elf performer and his current image.

“Who are you?” Ratface asked.

The elf girl looked back at her. Her eyes were old. There was something odd about them she couldn’t pin down.

“I think you know,” she said.

“The glamour?”

“One of them.”

Ratface looked up at the sky and the glamour laughed.

“Your demon helper is good, but she’ll have to look a little harder to see me. It will be easier for her to go after the new intruder. I’ve been here far longer. I’ve practically watched you grow.”

“Why are you in here?”

“I’d hardly be a good glamour if I said such a thing.”

Her eyes kept drifting back to the performer and the two watched him again. The mushroom things danced about.

“Beautiful, aren’t they? I found out they were called jellyfish a littler later after this.” She reached out and one of the jellyfish disappeared from the performers act and appeared in her hand.

“I always found something so magical about them,” the glamour whispered.

Ratface looked at her in confusion. She knew from Claudette’s discussion that glamours could control themselves, but this one seemed so… alive.

The glamour noticed her inspection and sighed. She handed Ratface the jellyfish and it floated above her hand. Ratface stared in wonder. The performer had put a lot of effort into it. This close she could see the faint twinkling inside it, like it had a night sky hiding in its body.

“I came here to offer you a warning Ratface. Don’t go looking at us glamours. Live a life in ignorance and live a life of joy.”

“If I refuse?” Ratface asked. This glamour may be an elf, but it was also an elf stuck in her head. She wasn’t going to take orders from it.

The glamour shrugged.

“That’s your choice. Just don’t blame me when it all comes down on your head.”

The scene changed to the nightmare she and Isabelle had been in. Around her was a sea of green, other goblins.

A dark swept around them and one by one the green was chipped away at. There was a rumbling underneath it. It started quiet and got louder and louder until it was all she could hear.

Screaming. So many goblins screaming in pain, in terror, as the darkness got closer. It was getting closer and closer. She coughed as her lungs gave out and only then did she realise she was screaming to.

But there was nothing they could do, nothing could stop-

A red eye in the sky appeared and the confused vision fled before it. Only then did real sleep take her, whisking her away to the sanctuary of forgotten dreams.

It seemed like a moment when Ratface woke up but by the dimming light in the room it must’ve been longer.

She didn’t forget the glamours warning.